1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gait posture meters, and particularly relates to a gait posture meter that quantitatively evaluates whether or not a person's gait posture is a correct posture.
This invention also relates to a program for causing a computer to execute a method that quantitatively evaluates whether or not a person's gait posture is a correct posture.
2. Description of the Related Art
A body movement balance detection apparatus that detects a left-right balance in the actions of a measurement subject who is moving based on an output, from an accelerometer affixed to the waist area of the measurement subject, related to at least one of a vertical direction acceleration and a left-right direction acceleration of the measurement subject has been proposed as this type of device, as disclosed in JP 2010-119500A for example.
Meanwhile, JP 2010-268968A, for example, discloses a body movement determination apparatus that evaluates whether or not there is imbalance in a person's gait with respect to the left-right direction (a horizontal sideways direction relative to the gait travel direction) based on an output from an accelerometer affixed to the person's trunk area. This apparatus finds a difference between a pitch when the person steps with his/her right foot and a pitch when the person steps with his/her left foot from outputs of the accelerometer regarding a vertical direction acceleration and a left-right direction acceleration, and evaluates the quality of the left-right balance of the person's gait based on the magnitude of the difference between the stated pitches.
In addition, JP 2011-251013A, for example, discloses a mobile electronic device that calculates an up-down axis direction movement amount and a left-right axis direction movement amount of a measurement subject based on outputs from an accelerometer affixed to the measurement subject's waist area and evaluates a measurement subject's gait posture based on those movement amounts.
Furthermore, Matsubara, J., et al, “Gait analysis focusing on gait balance for preventing falls,” 70th (2008) National Conference Presentation and Article Collection (4), Information Processing Society of Japan, Mar. 13, 2008, pp. 4-785-4-786, for example, discloses a method for evaluating a left-right difference in the manner in which the center of gravity of a body sways from left-right difference appearing in a plurality of outputs from a plurality of accelerometers affixed to the waist area and both ankles of a measurement subject.